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The Poor Performance Of Governors Who Are About 40

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The Poor Performance Of Governors Who Are About 40

With the swearing -in of Yahaya Bello as governor of Kogi State in January this year, the number of governors in the country who are about 40 years of age increased to three. The about 40-year governors, as used in this piece, refers to those men who are either slightly under or slightly above 40 years of age when they were sworn-in to become chief executives of their states. Apart from Yahaya Bello, the other two governors are Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Mohammed Sani Bello of Niger. The rest 33 governors are either in their early 50s or mid- 50s. Only one or two are near sixty and I doubt if there is any that has crossed that age.
In statistical terms, three out of 36 may not mean much or may not be significant. But as insignificant as their numbers may appear in comparison to the whole, it will not invalidate the conclusion I have reached following a practical or observational research I have silently conducted which I wish to relate here. A friend of mine who is a cynic had once told me that as a result of certain weaknesses in their character and their attitude to life, the generation of Nigerians born in the 70s and after, may not produce a successor-generation of leadership, especially at the national level and will therefore continue to be ruled by oldies in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Since I received this prophesy, I have been watching out to see if it may come to pass or if some among them with some redeeming virtues will emerge to disprove that damning prognostication hence my inspiration to take a keen interest in the sayings and doings of the governors who have come to some prominence as heads of government at the state level.
I regret to report that from my observation so far, the ‘newbreed’ governors have failed to inspire hope that the future of this country lies with the young. All three seem to lack the attributes and attitudes of good leadership: vision, thinking, planning and action. They do not appear like disciplined and organised young men who think things through and who have a set plan of action to guide their administration.
The constant complaint you hear from their constituencies about Ayade, Bello and Bello is that they do not listen to anybody. They operate on brainwaves and often mess up even good ideas. These young men tend to mistake rashness or rascality for radicalism. A radical administrator is like a political entrepreneur. He uses refreshingly different or innovative approaches or methods to achieve greater results. But these men are not noted for any peculiar creative approach that has yielded very positive and effective dividends in any sector of the political economy of their states. Rather, they tend to act before they properly reason things out. Shocked by the uproar that often follows some of their rash actions, they then unleash their spin doctors on society to now begin to rationalize their impulsive and counter-productive actions.
Governor Ayade made hundreds of political appointments that the revenues and existing infrastructure of government cannot accommodate. The embarrassing story now is that the appointees cannot even find office accommodation to sit and do their work! The state’s lean finances cannot support their salaries and allowances. His spin men are now saying that he made such large appointments as a way of creating jobs. What a way to create jobs!
A few days after he was sworn-in, Yahaya Bello, in the manner of Nigeria’s recent ex- football coach, Sunday Oliseh, started seeing witches and wizards everywhere in the round-abouts and other monuments of Lokoja, capital city of his state. He demolished them all.it was left to his spin men to say that he pulled down those structures in order to build better ones that will beautify the capital. Three or four weeks after, no one has been privileged to see his design of the structures that will replace the demolished ones and which, at the same time, will beautify Lokoja.
The tragedy of the people of Niger state is that their own young governor does not even do anything whether good or bad to warrant any mention of him. And this is because he is not even there. He is a traveling governor. In fact, his own story deserves a news feature story entitled ‘’The Man who is never there’’. The big story coming out of CRS these past few days is that Governor Ayade has gone AWOL for months now without transmitting the notice of his unavailability to the SHA to enable his deputy to inherit the reins of government. Unlike the late President Yar’Adua who had a cabal of five or six persons rule in his stead when he was absent, Ayade has a one-man cabal of his younger brother governing. Yahaya Bello has so far not shown any penchant for traveling but given his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari, he may soon catch the disease I have christened jetphilia!
I must quickly confess my ineligibility to conduct this type of research. Being no social scientist, I lack the tools to carry out a work of this nature. But blame the department of political science of our universities whose lack of academic interest in analyzing or researching into some interesting trends in our politics and governance has left a vacuum for laymen like me to try to fill. If we had a robust intellectual culture, some lecturer-supervisor in any of our political science department would have suggested to a promising and enterprising 400 level student to write his long essay on a topic entitled ‘’The Impact of Young Governors on the Governance of their States: the Examples of Ayade, Bello and Bello’’.
Please note that the issue at stake here is not necessarily the age of the governors. Nigeria has always been a country governed by young people. The First Republic leaders who have today become like demi-gods in the pantheon of our largely uninspiring leaders, were all young men in their time. Awo was 37; Sarduana was 36 and Zik 39. But there is a wide gulf of difference between our current young leaders and the young leaders of old. The young of today lack the personal self- discipline and the sense of mission of the young leaders of long ago. The 19 governors of the Northern Governors Forum combined cannot do effectively what Amadu Bello alone did in the former Northern Region which now constitutes the 19 northern states. Six men do more incompetently what Zik of Africa alone did in the East and seven men are battling for breath in doing what one competent Awo easily did in the old Western Region which is now a minor version of what is today the South West.
The issue, essentially, has to do with the mindset and moral climate of the times these men were brought up. In many countries of the world today, people in their early or mid or late 40s have become presidents or prime ministers and some have done excellently well. What, then, is wrong with us that our own young leaders always fumble and stumble? It, certainly, cannot be in our genes. The answer lies in a deeper academic inquiry into a tragedy that may spell doom for our nation.

By Idang Alibi
Ripples Nigeria…without borders, without fears

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